The need to take messages and distribute them to the intended recipient is an important part of business activities which has been addressed in many different ways. Answering services, receptionists, and automatic telephone answering machines are well known examples of methods used to take and retrieve such messages.
Telephone answering systems have two major functions: to take and store a message until it is ultimately delivered, and retrieving messages upon the request of a user. Several features are important to any telephone message system. Obviously, the most important aspect is that the message reach the intended recipient. The ability to transfer callers to other people who might be able to help them is another important and advantageous feature. For example, a caller's question might well be answered by a secretary or assistant to the person being called.
Recently, the availability of powerful computers which are within the range of small and medium sized businesses has provided an incentive to create systems in which the computer performs many of the tasks involved in telephone message taking. Typically, such systems have a human operator who answers calls directed to the operator's station when a called party is unable to answer. The ability of a computer to store and quickly retrieve selected items from a large amount of data enables computer based systems to easily present to an operator data associated with the called party which can aid the operator in responding to the caller's inquiries.